English and history majors are the most likely

About 14% of Hillsdale graduates have started their careers in education since 2016, according to a report by Career Services, and most of these roughly 500 alumni have gone into classical education.

“Hillsdale College is incredibly highly respected within the world of classical education, and so it’s natural that classical schools would look to Hillsdale as a source for highly qualified teachers,” said David Diener, assistant professor of education and former headmaster of Hillsdale Academy. 

Representatives from more than 70 classical schools are scheduled to attend Hillsdale’s Classical Job Fair Thursday, Feb. 12, in the Searle Center from 1-6 p.m. The K-12 Education Office hosts the job fair to connect Hillsdale students with schools whose missions are aligned with that of the college, according to Cherri Lindsley, the K-12 education event manager.

Hillsdale teaches students how to learn humbly, going to older and wiser sources instead of relying on one’s own knowledge, according to Elizabeth Penola ’25, a 6th grade humanities teacher at Seven Oaks Classical Academy, which is a Hillsdale Member School. Hillsdale Member Schools are schools that receive curriculum, consultation, and training from Hillsdale’s K-12 Office, according to the K-12 Office website.

“Hillsdale prepared me really well in many ways, one of which is that Hillsdale really teaches you how to think about things, and it teaches you the habit of going to primary sources, especially the history major,” Penola said. “It teaches you to not just rely on your own perspective, but to try to see things from a broader perspective, and to not be so arrogant to think that the modern way to view something is the correct way.”

English is the most common major for students who go into education, with history as the second-most common, according to the Career Services report.

“We talk about the difficult things in the history department, but we also talk about the good things and the triumphs and that which we can really be proud of. That’s where I think the history department has a really good balance,” said Kenneth Calvert, professor of history and also a former headmaster of Hillsdale Academy. “The students that we turn out want to take that excitement, that enthusiasm, to schools and really make it into something that is positive in a school.”  

Part of being a good teacher is loving the subject you teach because, when you study what you love, you become better at it, according to Brent Cline, associate professor of English. 

“English is a good major for several reasons. One, language and communication are at its core. Any teacher is, first and foremost, a communicator with a whole bunch of different kinds of people in different registers,” Cline said. “I also think the study of literature is the study of the human condition and human struggles, and that’s going to be in any English or humanities class you teach in school, if not all classes you teach.”

When teachers focus on caring about their students and teaching them to love learning, the test scores and GPAs fall into place on their own, according to Penola.

“You’re shaping souls, you’re not just trying to get them to retain information. With teaching, it’s really easy to get lost in the details, and you just lose sight of the goal,” Penola said. “But in classical education, it’s so clear that the goal is forming human souls. So, if the goal is shaping souls, then you can kind of let go of a lot of the stress of the other stuff.”

Classical schools want Hillsdale students because of the preparation they receive with Hillsdale’s liberal arts curriculum, according to Diener.

Classical education is growing at a rate of 5% per year, nationally and internationally, making it the fastest growing sector in private and public charter education, according to Diener. 

“People are increasingly realizing that the radical educational experiment that we have foisted upon children for the past 100 to 150 years is failing,” Diener said. “People recognize that we should go back to the long standing tradition of classical education, which worked for centuries and is part of our heritage and educational legacy that we’ve inherited.”

Hillsdale’s core curriculum gives students a broad understanding of a traditional classical education, which, alongside studying something they love and want to pass on through teaching, is necessary for classical teacher, according to Diener.

“Hillsdale College is uniquely situated to prepare students for working in classical schools, given that we focus on developing their content knowledge in the area of their major and then provide the classical education minor to give them some instruction in teaching and the classical education tradition,” Diener said.

Hillsdale’s K-12 Office helped to establish 34 Hillsdale College Member Schools and Candidate Member Schools, and is adding three more this fall.

“We focus on the liberal arts and all of those areas of study that are necessary for a good, intelligent citizen,” Calvert said. “What we’re trying to do is train their minds and their hearts and their souls to be ready to do anything that they’re asked to do, or any job, or any trade that they’re going to go into.”

Classical schools are special because they treat students as a whole person, not just test scores and GPAs, according to Penola.

“One thing that I love about teaching is that every day when I go into work, even if I feel under qualified or overwhelmed, I feel like the work I’m doing matters,” Penola said. “Whether I’ve had a good lesson or a bad lesson, or a good day of classroom management, or a bad day of classroom management, every class, I have 27 little faces looking at me. That’s 27 kids that I can love in that class.”